


The Evergreens and The Oak

by miss_eee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, One Shot, angst with a side of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 01:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17571938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_eee/pseuds/miss_eee
Summary: In the middle of a glade, a tall oak stands, that all of the trees in Fox Forest have sprouted from. It offers protection from the elements and the world outside the woods. Its leaves serve as school projects, its branches as a lesson in childhood bravery. There’s a place on its trunk, where the bark has been peeled away, where once a knife had cut into the hard wood, jutting and etching a design.





	The Evergreens and The Oak

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Riverdale Writing Challenge Discord

* * *

 

Her car came to a stop at the end of the two-track trail. She pushed open the car door, surrounded by the thick Evergreens and large oak trees of Fox Forest and she breathed in the clean, fresh air. Out here, the sounds of the city were replaced with the soft whistling of the wind in the trees. The woods called out to her, the trees welcoming her home. It’d been too long since she’d been back to visit them. 

 

She took the trail that led off the to the right, curving and winding down alongside Sweetwater River. She knew this trail like the lines on the back of her hand, she’d grown up in these woods. These woods had once been her greatest escape until she was old enough to actually escape. The day after graduation, she’d loaded her car with boxes and bags and headed west towards a fresh start. To a place where she wasn’t a serial killers daughter…  where her mother wasn’t involved with a cult… to a place where she wasn’t expected to be perfect. 

 

She’d found herself there, on the beaches in California with her toes in the sand. She’d found the happiness she hadn’t had here, covered by the clouds of this town. 

 

Her feet caught on the roots of a tree that had grown to cover the path in the years since she’d been gone and her hand instinctively reached out to catch herself on a tree. The thick, rough bark tore at her fingers. She sat down on the tree root, letting her body breathe for a moment. She wasn’t inexperienced with hiking - the hills around her new home provided her plenty of opportunities to get lost on the trails - but here, in these woods that she knew so well, she needed a moment to just… be. 

 

The river flowed softly to her right and she watched the water crash over the rocks. Not too far from here, she knew there was a series of rocks large enough to create a natural bridge to the other side, where after another mile of trails, the woods would give way to a gorgeous meadow where wildflowers bloomed in the spring. The yellows and purples and blues of her childhood were forever etched in her memory but that meadow was not her destination today. No - today the trails would take her further alongside the river, before jutting out into more open woods. 

 

She reached for the water she carried in her backpack, relishing the refreshing chill the drink brought her. Here under the cover of the tall trees, the sun didn’t break through the canopy, providing cooler temperatures. The day outside was hot and humid, but here in this place, where the trees offered protection, she was sheltered from the world outside these woods. 

 

She remembered when these woods had protected her, been her safe haven from the outside world, from the town and her mother. When these woods had been her home - when she’d slept under their branches or in the metal safety of the abandoned bunker. When the world outside came crashing down around her, when she struggled to breathe in the midst of everything, these woods were her sanctuary. 

 

She’d never been alone in these woods, not truly like she was now. Even then, when her world was shattered, he’d been here right beside her. Holding her and comforting her, protecting her… loving her. It’s been years since she’s seen him, since she’d heard his voice, and maybe that was what had pulled her back into these woods today. She hadn’t planned on stopping, on walking these trails, until she did. As if on autopilot, her car had pulled her in the direction of these woods, her body had dragged her down by the river along these trails. 

 

They were calling to her. The woods were calling her home, calling her to face that thing that she had left behind.  _ That person she had left behind.  _ She hadn’t really left him behind - he hadn’t stayed here either - not in these woods, not in this town. 

 

He’d left too, the same day after graduation, heading to that big city a few hours south of here. They’d tried, for the first few years. Phone calls and Facetimes and alternating holidays. New York to LA and LA to New York. He had found the happiness in the city that she’d found on the beach, and slowly, they’d drifted apart. The phone calls came less frequent, the holiday plans fell through. Their college lives took over, classes and work taking precedence over long weekend trips to see each other. No one was at fault, neither had fallen into the arms of another, it just… was. 

 

She felt her heart grow heavy as the trail opened up to a glade. The tall trees that had covered the path now stood scattered, and she was reminded of nights spent sleeping in a tent in this very place. The wood floor had provided an even ground for the tent, while the trees provided protection from the elements. It was here, in this place, that she had once given him her whole heart. 

 

She walked further into the opening, her hands reaching out to brush along the trees, scraping at their bark. It was darker here, the leaves overhead blocking out more of the sun. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she continued further… closer. Closer to that large oak that stood towards the center. She’d often felt all the other trees in the forest had sprouted from this one oak… this one tree…  this one place. 

 

She paused, staring up at it, this large monster that had lived for hundreds of years before her. The large branches that jutted out had once supported her as she climbed and crawled over them. The leaves that fell every fall she’d once collected for a school project. The bark, that had once been peeled and sliced away, marked and scratched by a knife. 

 

Her fingers found it before her eyes did - that hole in the bark that matched the hole in her heart, and she was instantly pulled back to that memory. 

 

_ It was the day before graduation - before everything changed. They’d packed lunch and their hiking bags, and set out on the trail that they knew so well. Just the two of them, just one last day together. His hand held firm to hers - like he was afraid that if he let it go, she would leave.   _

 

_ These woods, this clearing, had held so much of them. Their childhood growing up in this town together, falling in love. When everything in the world had seemed too much, they’d still had this place. Together, just the two of them.  _

 

_ She’d watched as he pulled his knife from his back pocket, cutting away at the bark. He carved and etched, words that would stay in these woods forever, even after they were both gone from here - from this place and each other. This would always be here, always be theirs.  _

 

_ When he was done, she’d reached up to run her fingers along it, memorizing the cuts and the jagged edges. There would be days ahead that she would feel alone, suffocating in a world that was bigger than she - but this. This was here to ground her, to remind her of what had once been.  _

 

Tears were falling from her eyes as her fingers ran over the wood that she saw so often in her dreams. Her hands were trembling as she reached into her pocket. Her eyes were blurred, but her body seemed to move on muscle memory, as she pressed his name, waiting as it rang. Over and over again. 

 

“Betty?” Just hearing her name in his voice, she cracked, her body sliding down the tree trunk to settle onto the dirt. 

 

“Oh, God. Jug. I needed to hear your voice.” How long had it been? How many months… years… moments… had passed since she’d heard his voice. 

 

“Betts, are you okay? Where are you?”

 

“I’m here, Jug. I came  _ here. _ ” 

 

“I’ll be there. I’ll be there soon. Betty, I love you… “

 

“I love you too, Jug…”

 

* * *

  
  


In the middle of a glade, a tall oak stands, that all of the trees in Fox Forest have sprouted from. It offers protection from the elements and the world outside the woods. Its leaves serve as school projects, its branches as a lesson in childhood bravery. There’s a place on its trunk, where the bark has been peeled away, where once a knife had cut into the hard wood, jutting and etching a design. The markings of a journey - of a love story - between two friends that had turned lovers that had found themselves again. Here, in this place. 

 

**JJ ♥ BC**


End file.
